Autumn 2024
By Martina Leeven
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We have three strands of activity:
If you have not had a chance to view the Association’s climate crisis position paper, you can view it here.
We are now keen to work with the Association to see how we can further develop the points set out in it, whether around increasing sustainability or developing training.
The Climate Minds Coalition is a group of representatives from mental health professional bodies and third sector organisations who have united to collectively acknowledge and raise awareness of the mental health impacts of the climate crisis in order to inform both practice and policy.
The EMDR Association is a proud member of this coalition, working with other professional bodies, such as the BACP, UKCP and BPS, and alongside third sector organisations such as such as MIND, Place2Be and CPA, to raise awareness of the implications of eco-distress, including climate related trauma and to ensure that those working to improve the nation’s mental health have the right training and expertise to address this growing mental health crisis. The coalition would also like to see parliamentarians be more informed about the implications of eco-distress and environmental trauma on communities and services to ensure that environmental and health policy in this arena is developed with mental health in mind.
Eco-distress or eco-anxiety is the term coined to capture the concerning mental health response to witnessing the climate catastrophe unfold and the ensuing fear of the future this triggers. We can also think of this as a kind of pre-traumatic stress response, which is a rational response to experiencing the destruction of the natural world and the existential threat that this poses to all life. This universal, unfathomable sense of loss is unique to the climate crisis, due to the far-reaching (although unequal) impacts of a warming world. In the UK people are already also experiencing the direct impact of climate change through specific events such as flooding, heatwaves and pollution. All of these have a significant and well documented impact on our mental health.
Additionally, we know that those who are already more systemically marginalised are more vulnerable to the effects of climate change due to complex intersecting socioeconomic factors. Globally, those who have contributed least to the crisis are those whose lives will be most devastated by it. Effective and compassionate mental health support must encompass an understanding of how global inequalities are part and parcel of this crisis and how it is psychologically experienced.
Currently, there is little guidance for counsellors and psychotherapists on working with clients experiencing eco-distress. It is important that this changes, given there is likely to be a major, society-wide increase in feelings of hopelessness about the future and of the environmental events that impact on people’s mental health. We are already witnessing the impact this is having on people.
The EMDR Association is increasingly recognising the need to do more in this area; however, we know that grasping and addressing the scale of this crisis and its mental health implications requires collaboration across sectors, proactivity, and compassion – alongside expanded, targeted awareness-raising and training for mental health professionals. We hope that through the coalition’s work, our membership and networks will eventually feel more confident in addressing the mental health impacts of the climate crisis. The Climate Crisis SIG also continues to offer a regular space for reflection on working with clients as well as Climate Cafés, which are a space for therapists to share their own feelings about the climate crisis.
The Climate Minds Coalition has now launched a website, where they will share blogs from practitioners, resources for those working in the mental health space, and news about the campaign.
Climate cafés are confidential sharing and listening spaces. We have slightly adapted the CPA’s (Climate Psychology Alliance) model to incorporate some aspects of EMDR, like our resourcing and stabilisation tools to create a space exclusively for EMDR therapists to get in touch with their own feelings in relation to the climate crisis. This is significant, as without becoming aware of what’s going on for us, we may well struggle to identify and help our clients coming with these issues either in the foreground or background. At worst, we risk inadvertently pathologising their distress and colluding in a culture of silent disavowal of the unfolding climate crisis and biodiversity loss.
Even if our personal lives seem to have little direct daily impact from the global consequences of the climate and ecological crisis, we live within an atmosphere that is patterned by an increasing volume of distress. When this is intangible and diffuse, it is no less potent. On the contrary, we are ‘in the soup’ of it with less opportunity for awareness or agency.
Sue Milner, Being a Therapist in a Time of Climate Breakdown, 2024
The café takes the format of a small online group of up to 10 therapists, including two facilitators who also take part in the sharing; it lasts 1.5 hours and follows a structure that allows for safe and confidential sharing and listening in break-out rooms and the open group setting. There is no charge, but you need to book in advance on Eventbrite. For more about the CPA model of climate cafés & training click here.
We organised a guest speaker, Sue Milner, to talk to us about the intersectionality of EEDI issues and the climate crisis, allowing us to reflect on the central significance of past and current systemic inequalities and how they offer a lens to grasp the unfolding crisis better. Her talk also highlighted the importance of increasing therapist awareness and understanding of how the climate crisis impacts people unequally, in particular those with disabilities, neurodiversity, pre-existing mental health conditions and difficulties, and those of ethnic minorities. The talk was also attended by some members of the EEDI SIG in recognition of this overlap between our areas and the need to look at this jointly.
To read more on the wider topic we recommend reading Climate Change is Racist by Jeremy Williams.
The SIG is looking towards developing a training workshop to increase practitioner awareness of the climate crisis and its psychological and social inequality underpinnings. This is something that many professional bodies are looking to offer, and training courses for therapists and psychologists are already integrating modules into their university courses as well. While there are no EMDR-specific protocols for the climate crisis (don’t we wish it was that simple!), there are, of course, aspects of our trauma-informed toolbox that will have particular significance in this area, and these will be highlighted. If you have any experience delivering training in this area and wish to get involved, please get in touch. With some luck (or hard graft) we may be able to develop something to be delivered at the next annual conference.
You can see the published findings of the climate crisis therapist survey in the related articles list below.
In addition, reviewing the findings led to further discussions among us about the overall tendency to be silent on the topic of the climate crisis within our client work, mirroring the wider silence that we see around us. We also noted that one of the dominant questions raised by therapists attending SIG meetings is whether to bring up the climate crisis with clients and if so, how and when. These and other questions led us to write a thought-provoking piece about the ethical dilemma of refraining to bring it up and also bringing it up, and an invitation to unpick this more fully. What is our ethical responsibility as health professionals in light of the climate crisis? How does our silence clash with our duty of care? Do we understand the social dynamics of the climate crisis and that people are impacted unequally? What assumptions are we making? Do we bring it in, and if we do, how and what are the impacts of doing so? There are no easy answers. To read more on this and to join ongoing discussions, come to our next meeting.
Opinion
Members of the Climate Crisis SIG advocate for EMDR therapists to develop knowledge and confidence to raise the issue of the climate crisis with clients in therapy sessions. They argue that not to is to diminish the current context and experience of our clients.
SIG updates
Up to date climate crisis resources for members who want to find out more.
Research
Members of the Climate Crisis SIG present the findings from their recent survey of EMDR therapists on their views and experiences of the climate crisis.
